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Fully Coupled Numerical Simulation of Altered-Stress Zones in Modified Zipper-Frac Completion Design
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 79th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2017, Jun 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Summary
In recent years, novel sophisticated fracturing designs have been introduced to enahnce far-field fracture complexity and, as a result, achieving higher economic production rates. The “Modified Zipper-Frac” (MZF) design is one of those techniques, which increases the stress interference between the fractures to enhance the hydrocarbon production. In the present paper, taking MZF into account, the Cohesive segments method in combination with Phantom Node Method, termed CPNM, is established to simulate the initiation and propagation of multiple fractures along arbitrary, solution-dependent paths. The proposed CPNM is capable of non-planar hydraulic fracture propagation for investigating the stress shadow effects resulted from existing induced fractures. In the present work, the impact of fracture spacing as well as fracture length on the horizontal stress contrast, pore pressure of the shale formation, and fracture propagation path are studied in detail. From the obtained results, it has been inferred that the first stage in MZF scenario results in two distinct regions including “repulsion zone” and “attraction zone” around the first fracture. Moving away from the first fracture, firstly the stress region is altered to “attraction zone”, followed by a repulsion zone.
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